Poetry in motion: PBR champion’s global quest to find the sweet spot

For Troy Wilkinson, the sensation of getting on the back of 800kg beasts bred specifically to buck, spin and drop him into the dirt is "like poetry".

When the reigning PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Australia champion gets it right, or finds the "sweet spot", he says it's "like sitting in a rocking chair". When it goes wrong, then, it must be like a rollercoaster at full tilt... off its rails.

“You’ve got to be with the bull. If you try and muscle your way through a ride, the bull will rip your arm off. You’ve got to counteract his movements and stay out of his power zones. When you’re in that sweet spot it’s like sitting in a rocking chair … it’s great.”

Searching for the sweet spot: Troy Wilkinson in action at last week's Cairns Invitational.Credit:Elise Derwin/ PBR

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Wilkinson, from Upper Horton in northern NSW, a tiny town known for its New Year's Day rodeo, is chasing those rocking chair rides along with the world's best riders in this weekend's PBR Global Cup at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena.

The home team, coached by Australia’s only ever PBR World Champion Troy Dunn, is taking on teams from the US, Brazil, Canada and Mexico that boast bull riding royalty - reigning world champion (Jess Lockwood) and his 2016 predecessor (Cooper Davis) for the US team, current world leader (Ramon de Lima) and 2015 rookie of the year (Kaique Pacheco) for Brazil, and Canada and Mexico's national champions to begin with.

If you try and muscle your way through a ride, the bull will rip your arm off.

PBR Australia 2017 champion Troy Wilkinson

Riding bulls was the ‘safe’ option for Wilkinson when he chose chasing buckles and pay cheques around the world over a fledgling rugby career in northern NSW.

With a 65kg frame that would need to be multiplied 12 times to weigh something similar to a small bull, he was a league and union scrum-half for Barraba's Rams and Bulldogs. He said his greatest assets were his speed and confidence, transferable qualities for his chosen career.

"The way I see it, I’m only on a bull for eight seconds but you’re on a rugby field for 80 minutes. It takes a 1000 bulls to get to 80 minutes," he laughs.

"Playing football I broke my leg, snapped my kneecap in half, broke my arm, my nose a couple of times, knocked my front tooth out." (The tooth came out eight years ago, but he pushed it back in. Despite it being loose for a couple of months it's now firmly in place, just "a bit darker".

Although Wilkinson grew up in team sports, teamwork is a novel concept for a sport which pits man against bull. But it's been embraced by the Aussies, who gathered for a training camp after last weekend's Cairns Invitational. The camp was funded by the $3000 Dunn made auctioning off his 2010 World Cup jersey in Rockhampton.

"Bull riding is not a team sport, it’s very individual, usually just you and the bull," Wilkinson said. "So coming together as a team and wearing the Australian jersey, it’s pretty honourable. For some it’s once in a lifetime. What Dunny did for us, to bring us closer as a team, that just makes us more determined to do well for him."

The Australians are already close, given the road-tripping nature of their sport and the fact the top-ranked of them spend the best part of six months a year in the US going for the big bucks on the PBR Built Ford Tough Series – the pinnacle of the sport which culminates at the World Tour Finals in Las Vegas which are worth upwards of $1 million to the winner.

"When we’re all over there, we stick together and some of us live with each other," he says. "The Brazilians speak Portuguese, obviously, and a lot of the Americans travel with their families. But it’s a very mateship-oriented sport because you’re not competing against each other. There’s no rivalry, it’s just you and the bull. You’ve just got to beat the bull – for eight seconds."

Riding for Australia: Wilkinson will line up for his country in the PBR Global Cup this weekend.Credit:Elise Derwin/PBR

And the bull wants to beat the rider, with the same level of competitiveness among the breeders of these brilliant beasts who have their own points systems, standings and prize money for the 'rankest' bulls. When a ride is judged out of 100 points, 50 goes to the rider for their control and style over an eight second ride. Less than eight seconds and they get bupkis.

The other half, importantly, goes to the bull for his difficulty to ride - spins, kicks and body rolls (kicks during a leap off the ground). It could be argued, as Wilkinson does, that the bulls are more like rodeo royalty than the riders. Sweet Pro's Hillbilly Deluxe, Call Me Joe, Fully Locked and Loaded, and the so far unridden this season Un Broken, are the top dogs in the Sydney bull ring this weekend.

"You want to get on a good bull and get good points, but it’s catch 22, the better the bull the harder it is to ride," Wilkinson explains. "They get pampered. It's all about them being in the best condition to perform on the night. They get physio, chiro, massages even and an awesome diet."

This flies in the face of the bad rap the sport gets about the mistreatment of animals.

"We have downright 100 per cent respect for the animals,” says Wilkinson. “We’re all farmers, and live off the land, they’re our livelihood as well. There’s no way we’d disrespect them. It's not like we go out there and stab them with knives or swords – if I saw someone doing that I’d probably shoot them."